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Embarrassment of Riches
'' Yes, Even More Butterfly Tales: Embarrassment of Riches is the fourth book in the ''Butterfly PrincessButterfly Princess (Series)series of e-books by David Graham Edwards. It was published online in June 2017, and also made available in a print format. Synopsis Prior to the beginning of the story, "Four" Wheeler and Mariposa the butterfly princess encountered the full-grown form of Christabel the dragon after weeks of searching for her. Through the fog, Mariposa detects that she is in aerial combat with the elder Forever the dragon, a battle that ends in Forever's death. Four and Mariposa hurry to escape. Some time later, in unctual year 3892, Four and Mariposa are visiting the town of Torlynn, which is holding the tenth annual Torylnn Fair. Four quite literally runs into Jenna Saiquois, an old childhood friend from Darkholm. She expresses concern that Brian Devonhyre was scheduled to attend the World's Strongest Man competition but has gone missing. Enthralled with being reunited with his childhood sweetheart, Four agrees to help her find him. To keep her butterfly heritage a secret, Four introduces Mariposa to Jenna as "Marie Prosser." After interviewing patrons of the fair without much success, Mariposa uses her telepathic llenleth to enter Jenna's mind and divine any knowledge of Brian that she may have, on the pretense of hypnotizing her. Mariposa discovers that a portion of Jenna's mind has been magically blocked by some powerful sorcery and is completely inaccessible to her. Mariposa is deeply concerned by this discovery, believing that Jenna is hiding something, but Four refuses to ascribe any ulterior motives to his childhood friend. That night, as Four ponders the Jenna situation, he is visited by his Pixie friend Wazzipaloo, who sensed his distress. Wazzipaloo locates the tavern where Jenna is staying, but Four refuses to allow her to accompany him. Wazipaloo follows him anyway, carrying a spell-nullifying sphere that she had stolen from the Pixie clan leader, Nyx. Four arrives to discover Jenna communicating over a seeing stone, which she quickly covers. Wazzipaloo flies through the window but trips, dropping the spell-jamming sphere and apparently dispelling the enchantment over Jenna's mind. She appears to come to her senses, revealing that she had been controlled by Deorwynn Fletcher and that she had been recruited to trick Four into returning with her to Deorwynn's base of operations within the Forgotten Basin. Jenna explains that Deorwynn has been conducting unusual experiments within the volcano basin. She also reveals that Deorwynn has found Four's sister, Fliegen, and has her under an enchantment as well. Determined to stop Deorwynn, Four recruits as many companions as he can. His plan is to send Wazzipaloo ahead for reconnaissance and to use her magic-jamming sphere to disable any magical traps. He plans to recruit young Talla Unica and use her clairvoyance to alert them to what is to come. He plans to use the magical wooden man, Syzygy, as a decoy. He plans to recruit Jessyka Bruinwald to attack head-on. Arienne the Elf initially refuses to help because the Elf lord Elladan is still upset over Mariposa's role during the fight against the Giant war machine. Mariposa is at first very reluctant to go marching into Deorwynn's camp with so many unknown elements in play. She senses that this course of action will lead to disaster. When Four resolves to go forward with his plan, with or without Mariposa, she reluctantly agrees to participate on the condition that she, not Four, lead the expedition to the volcano. During the trip to the Forgotten Basin, Wazzipaloo points out to Four that Jenna seems unaffected by Four's natural ability to make women fall in love with him, but Four remains unconcerned. After they arrive, Wazipaloo sees hundreds of mosquito people and moth people inside the volcano, and discovers a secret entrance leading inside. As they enter, Mariposa discovers Deorwynn's laboratory where wyverns, sylphs, goblins, moths, and even butterfly people have been physiologically altered and mutilated by an unknown means. Horrified by this discovery and fearing for his sister, Four rushes into the main chamber and sees the cloaked Deorwynn at the center of the room, carrying a scepter. The group fights their way through moths and mosquitos to try to reach her. Talla Unica is cognizant of the disastrous events to come, falling into despair over her inability to stop it. Mariposa's butterfly wing is damaged while fighting the mosquitos. Four sends Syzygy into the fray, but Syzygy's sensory perception is reduced by the effects of the spell-jamming sphere. Deorwynn uses sorcery to take control of Syzygy, who spins around and begins to choke Four. Arienne arrives, having changed her mind about helping Mariposa, and uses her own magic to restore Syzygy to normal. Four realizes the spell-jamming sphere isn't blocking Arienne's powerful magic, so it likely has no effect on Deorwynn, either. The mosquitos converge around the group, trapping them. Four is tied down by the mosquitos using coagulated blood. Jenna steps up to the dais and joins Deorwynn, demonstrating she had been under the control of the sorceress the entire time. Deorwynn pulls back her hood to reveal her skeletal face. She recalls how the battle at Castle Torlynn had left her close to death, but that when and old enchantment cast upon the castle went into effect, it granted her immortality. She explains that after wandering away from the ruined castle, she encountered the moth people, who worshipped her as a goddess—''Zoo-Zuul Faaz'', or the Living Bones. Deorwynn tells of how she began to teach herself sorcery, but discovered that there was a limit to the spells she could cast, as her blood was spent with the casting of each spell. She instructed her moth followers to begin kidnapping weak and elderly humans from neighboring towns, and recruited some mosquito people to drain their blood and inject it into her veins. Now fueled by an effectively unlimited blood supply, her magical powers were able to grow exponentially. She has even discovered how to open portals to alternate realms and time periods, giving her access to knowledge and technology that will not only allow her to rebuild her face, but to endow herself with the best attributes from the other Greater Races—the strength of a Dwarf; the wisdom of an Elf; the wings of a butterfly. Deorwynn plans to torture Four indefinitely, draining his blood just slowly enough for his body to replenish it. Four uses his spring traps to escape his bonds and prepares to make a move against Deorwynn. Talla Unica, foreseeing what is about to happen, protests, "Four, don't grab the scepter!" Mishearing her warning, Four interprets it as a directive and proceeds to snatch the scepter from her grasp. Believing it to be a weapon, Four points the scepter, creating a fissure in space-time that sucks up Syzygy and Four. Talla Unica and Mariposa jump in after them. Four and Mariposa find themselves in an unknown place and time, incredibly hot and seemingly devoid of plant and animal life. Talla Unica and Syzygy are nowhere to be found. Mariposa is unable to use her innate direction sense to determine their location, and her telepathic link with Arienne has been interrupted. She takes stock of her limited supply of starflower nectar, which will only last her a short while. With the understanding that she requires it to survive, they resolve to find a way to get back home. They observe an egg-shaped flying drone traveling nearby, suspecting it to be magical in nature. When a second one appears, Four is convinced it is connected to Deorwynn somehow. He ropes it with his grappling hook, and both he and Mariposa are carried into the sky. Elsewhere, Brian Devonhyre and Mirabel Miller emerge through another portal, having been enchanted by Deorwynn and sent as bounty hunters to find and recover Four and Mariposa. Brian is accompanied by a laboratory retriever called Meat, who picks up Four's scent. Brian plans to find a nearby town and stock up on provisions (and suggests that Mirabel find a less provocative outfit), with the understanding that once they complete their assignment, they can use the miniature scepter given to them by Deorwynn to open a portal and return home. Talla Unica and Syzygy find themselves in a barren desert, with Syzygy having fallen apart during the trip through the portal. Syzygy asks her to collect his parts, but they fail to find his right leg. Resolving to get out of the heat, Syzygy carries Talla Unica on his back, walking on his arms until they detect civilization off in the distance. Four and Mariposa are carried by the drone to a sprawling megalopolis with impossibly tall buildings and perfectly symmetrical roads. As the drone arrives at an apartment to make its parcel delivery, the door dematerializes and Four and Mariposa find themselves face-to-face with its sole living occupant, a girl with rainbow-colored hair named Birthday Jones-Smith. Elsewhere, Brian and Mirabel also encounter a drone. Anticipating an attack, Brian strikes the machine with his sword. It responds aggressively, grabbing Brian by the throat until Mirabel impales it from behind. After examining it, Mirabel realizes the drone is some kind of sophisticated clockwork contraption, not a magical object as they had initially thought. Brian is largely unconcerned about who constructed it or why, but Mirabel elects to conduct an experiment. When they encounter a second drone, she instructs Brian not to engage it. The drone examines them for a moment and leaves. Mirabel realizes the machines only behave as they are instructed to. Back at the megalopolis, Birthday speaks to Four and Mariposa in a strange alphanumeric code, as well as a second voice that seemingly emanates from the walls. Four performs an impromptu magic trick for Mariposa, who closes her eyes. They gesture for Birthday to take a turn, and when her eyes are closed, Mariposa touches her antenna to the girl's forehead to learn her language. Birthday introduces herself as well as Persephone, the Home Convenience System that manages the Halcyon Heights apartment complex. While her language is cluttered with jargon and slang that makes understanding her difficult, Four and Mariposa discern based on the level of advanced technology that Birthday must be a sorceress of some kind. She offers them water from gelpaks and invites them to stay the night. They resolve to stock up on supplies and search for Talla Unica in the morning. Persephone fails to detect Four or Mariposa because they are not equipped with idento-chips, which Birthday explains are standardized. When Four adjusts his headband and gets his hair caught in it, Birthday offers him a container of grey goo, actually a swarm of microscopic machines that proceeds to give him a haircut. When he objects, the tiny machines stitch his individual hairs back together as if nothing had happened. Birthday explains that her job is to transcribe old books and type them up into a digital format, adding to a vast electronic archive. As a fellow storyteller, Mariposa feels a kinship with her, given the butterfly tradition of memorizing and passing down tales and parables. Mariposa finally realizes, however, that what they have witnessed is not sorcery at all, but rather technology—suggesting that they have been transported to the distant future. They posit that Deorwynn created portals in order to harvest future technology, giving her access to medical advancements that would allow her to restore her face. Syzygy, who had detected Four and Mariposa's location, arrives at Birthday's domicile with Talla Unica, who is unconscious from heat stroke. Mariposa administers her remaining supply of nectar in order to facilitate Talla Unica's recovery. Four, having some experience with mechanical things, attempts to reassemble Syzygy. Birthday expresses awe at Syzygy's design, thinking him to be highly advanced technology. Syzygy, unaware Mariposa is trying to keep her true nature a secret, reveals she is a butterfly person. Birthday reveals she had already suspected something, and does not express surprise. To replace Syzygy's missing leg, Birthday has Persephone manufacture a replacement. Syzygy is unable to control it, and Mariposa recognizes the replacement as being made of plastic, a substance that repels magic and which doesn't exist in her time period. That night, Four warns Birthday about his limerent ability, but Birthday insists he has no effect on her. He bids her good night and wishes her sweet dreams, but Birthday counters that she never dreams. Later, she questions why he and Mariposa are together, and implies that she would be much better for him. Four is bothered by the suggestion and brushes her off. The next morning, Four awakens with a cold, which Birthday offers to remedy by allowing some of the grey goo to enter his nasal cavity and combat the germs. Four looks for his dragonskin vest only for Birthday to reveal that she fed it into her processor for raw materials. When he expresses anguish over losing it, she has Persephone summon the component molecules and reassemble it. In preparation to venture back into the heat, the group stocks up on hydration gelpaks, and Birthday warns them of the difficulty they will face without idento-chips. She also provides them with a homing beacon. Brian and Mirabel take refuge under a bridge. Mirabel tries to befriend Meat but Brian explains that he's a working dog and that unnecessary affection will only confuse him. As they search for their quarry, they discover Diamond Bridge, leading towards a sprawling megalopolis and, according to Meat, the scent of their targets. With a chunk of the dilapidated bridge missing, Brian elects to leap across the gap. He plans to make the jump with Meat, then come back with Mirabel, and then leap across again while carrying her. After the first jump, however, another section of the bridge falls. Mirabel instructs him to throw her across. Four and Mariposa send Talla Unica and Syzygy to search for some idento-chips so that they can access the buildings and shops. When Mariposa offers Talla Unica the rest of her nectar, Talla Unica insists she doesn't need it. Syzygy observes that Talla Unica's physiology is unique, and that she's likely half butterfly and half Elf. This revelation makes Mariposa question what she thought she knew about different races being able to have children. She realizes there may be a chance for her and Four to have a child together. During their travels, Talla Unica informs Syzygy that he doesn't always have to do as he's told. She expresses a desire for him to assert his independence. They arrive at a cemetary, and Syzygy proceeds to procure the subdermal idento-chips from several of the occupants, much to Talla Unica's revulsion. As rain begins to fall, Brian and Mirabel arrive to confront Four and Mariposa. Brian demands their surrender, and Four realizes they are acting as agents of Deorwynn. Brian and Mariposa prepare for a swordfight but the rainfall grows too intense, and Brian opts to withdraw. In the scuffle, Mirabel drops her scepter, and Four hears her identify it as their ticket back home. In the aftermath of the encounter, Mariposa grows weak from malnutrition. When another drone arrives, Four attempts to fight it, defeating it only when a piece of magnetized lodestone from his satchel latches to the drone and scrambles its circuits. He attempts to abscond with Mariposa, but collapses from the heat, inadvertantly activating the homing signal given to him by Birthday. Brian and Mirabel discover a secret storage area in which objects have been sorted by material type for possible recycling. After they duck into a greenhouse to wait out the storm, Mirabel realizes that she has no memory of agreeing to work for Deorwynn and concludes that she's been placed under a spell. Later, she accidentally utters Meat's command word to attack, and he turns on her. She survives only after befriending him as she had done earlier, offering him some wyvern jerky. Four awakens back at Birthday's place, who explains that the homing signal summoned a hovercar and that he and Mariposa were transported automatically. With Mariposa unconscious, Four is desperate to find her some starflower nectar. Birthday posits that a medical facility would be able to scan Mariposa, determine the root of her ailment, and synthesize some artifical nectar to keep her alive. Without an idento-chip, though, Mariposa can't be admitted to a hospital. They realize the only way to get Mariposa into the hospital is to render Birthday unconscious, so that the drones detect a medical emergency, and then switch her with Mariposa. With her consent, Four chokes Birthday until she passes out. The medical drones arrive on schedule, and after they place Birthday on a gurney, Four switches her with Mariposa's unconscious form and stows away with her on board the ambulance to the hospital. At the hospital, the drones examine Mariposa, taking particular interest in her wings, before slicing one off with a laser scalpel. When Four reacts in shock, he is sedated. Brian and Mirabel find an empty residential unit. They fail to find food, but they are able to fill their canteens, and Mirabel finds and keeps a futuristic breech-loader. Mirabel observes Brian is wearing a goatee similar to Four's, speculating that he's doing so to appeal to Mariposa, with whom he's in love. Mirabel succeeds in snapping Brian out of Deorwynn's control by forcing him to analyze the reasons he's following orders to kill Mariposa. Talla Unica uses her newly-acquired idento-chip to peruse the underground shops. She notices that the sales drones are single-minded and programmed to respond to specific keywords. She purchases a hat with neurotransmitter inhibitors that prevent her clairvoyance from working, much to her relief. Syzygy mentions a romantic interest in Persephone, and wants to buy her something as well. Meat tracks Four's scent to the hospital. With no way to get inside, Brian elects to leave Meat behind while they scale the side of the building, with Mirabel strapped to his waist. When Mirabel starts to panic, however, the two eventually fall. Meat makes a mighty leap and interrupts Mirabel's descent with his body, saving her. To her horror, the drones take Brian and Mirabel inside while failing to administer aid to the dying Meat. Four awakens in a hospital bed, freeing himself to hunt for Mariposa. He finds her unconscious but sees that the drones have grown a new wings for her to replace the damaged one that they cut off. Communicating with him telepathically, the unconscious Mariposa warns him that the bounty hunters are on their way. When they find Mariposa, they believe her to be dead. A furious Brian renews his determination to hunt down Four. Mirabel bumps into Four in the hallway and warns him about Brian's intentions. Four escapes up a stairwell with the bounty hunters in hot pursuit. On the rooftop, Mirabel accidentally activates her pulse gun, stunning Four, who falls towards a construction site down below and is impaled through the skull with a steel beam. With both of their targets seemingly dead, Brian and Mirabel activate the scepter to return home. Mariposa awakens with an intrinsic sense of what has happened to Four. She races to the construction site, but when drones arrive to take his body, she fights them until one of them stuns her. After she recovers, she searches the entire hospital but there is no sign of Four anywhere. She returns to Birthday and asks her to search her data archive for any magical spell books that might enable her to open a portal back home. Not only are there no spell books in the archive, but there are no references to Torlynn or the Darklands at all. Birthday suggests that Mariposa begin to add her butterfly stories to the data archive. Realizing it will be the only way to pass on her stories to future generations, Mariposa agrees. Birthday types up enough material to fill an entire book. When a delivery drone fails to make its weekly grocery drop-off, Birthday sends digital messages to her neighbors in Halcyon Heights asking if they're having the same problem. Talla Unica recognizes their replies as being similar to the ones she got from the sales drones, suggesting they could be preprogrammed responses. When Mariposa goes to visit them personally, the hallway is inexplicably blocked by a multitude of delivery drones. Later, when Mariposa makes another attempt, Persephone locks the door, citing dangerous weather conditions outside. It also occurs to Mariposa that the days are too short. This, coupled with the lack of archive data about her world, leads her to the conclusion that they have been sent to the past, not the future. She realizes that they are in the Old Age, and that the impending Cataclysm will one day destroy everything. Some time later, as Birthday is putting the finishing touches on the book, she and Mariposa get into an argument. This culminates in Talla Unica grabbing Mariposa's sword and threatening to hurt Birthday if Persephone doesn't open the door. Persephone complies and Talla Unica disappears outside. Mariposa follows her. At the underground shops, Mariposa equips some cold-weather gear and also acquires an auditory amplifier and a pair of vision-enhancing spectral lenses. In the heart of the city, she discovers a warrior clad in black, facing off against some drones. They cooperate to dispatch the drones, after which the warrior reveals himself to be Four. He explains that he was in the underground recovery wing of the hospital and that he believed the grey goo had repaired the damage to his brain. Four and Mariposa return to Halcyon Heights. In the days to come, Syzygy continues to woo Persephone, realizing finally that he must reprogram her in order to elicit a desirable response from her. Birthday invites the group to participate in a holographic simulated scenario, in which the group assumes the role of crew members aboard a space ship. Despite the futuristic setting, Four seems to lose track of reality and expresses significant confusion when the scenario ends. When the conversation turns to meeting Birthday's friends, Persephone once again announces an emergency. Mariposa realizes Birthday's entire world is a simulation, no different than the interactive scenario. Birthday forces the issue by sending an electronic invitation to her friend and neighbor, Eidolon. He arrives at the door a moment later, after which Four, thinking him to be a hologram, punches him in the nose and sends him away. When Four is unable to wash the blood off his gloves, however, Syzygy detects that a holographic transmitter in Birthday's apartment is projecting the image. Removing the transmitter makes the holographic blood vanish. Having reprogrammed Persephone, Syzygy is able to get her to finally tell the truth. She reveals that the drones were originally introduced into society to perform menial labor, but as the human population grew, drones were forced to build supplemental units to keep up with the demand. The second-generation machines were capable of thinking more creatively, and one of their solutions for the human population explosion was to create virtual worlds in which they could live. Over time, the virtual simulations became so much preferable to reality that humans lost the desire to interact and reproduce, and the population dwindled exponentionally. They wonder if Birthday could be the only human left living. In the aftermath of this realization, Four and Birthday have a conversation about what it would mean for them to repopulate the human race. Syzygy restores Persephone's programming to normal. Four has an epiphone that the cryonic imprisonment used to incarcerate criminals could be used to freeze the group, potentially protecting them from the Cataclysm and allowing them to awaken in their own time. Birthday is strongly against the idea, citing numerous obstacles and problems, but Mariposa is willing to try it. Four insists that Talla Unica tell him what the future holds, but she responds by running away with Syzygy. Four and Mariposa confer with Persephone on what actions they will need to take to be arrested by an enforcement drone and imprisoned cryonically. They take a portable Persephone module, and Birthday elects to accompany them. They accost a drone and short-circuit its battery pack in an attempt to destroy Diamond Bridge, but the plan fails. Mariposa attempts to magically levitate a drydocked cargo ship, but expresses concerns that the blood loss from such a spell may affect her unborn baby. Birthday is not pleased about this news. After she makes a passing reference to the cryonics lab, Four and Mariposa realize they don't need to be incarcerated at all. They head directly to the lab to find that Talla Unica has helped Syzygy to make short work of the drones staffing the facility. They decide relying on a computer is a bad idea, and put Persephone's mobile unit away. Birthday is indignant about this remark, and reveals that she has a computer brain. Four's perception of her immediately changes for the worse. Four elects Syzygy to remain behind and monitor the cryonic equipment so that Four, Mariposa, and Talla Unica can be put in stasis. Birthday implores them to reconsider, but Four no longer recognizes Birthday as a real person. Birthday reveals that Four, too, has a partially artificial brain, since it was rebuilt by the grey goo after his accident. Syzygy activates the controls to put the three into stasis. Birthday attacks Syzygy, intending to destroy him and reverse the cryonic state. While she's not in love with Four—indeed, she's not sure if she can even experience feelings with an electronic brain—her eyes have been uncovered as to the nature of her world, and she knows she will be lonely without him. Syzygy retaliates and incapacitates her. He intends to kill her, but she pleads with him to put her in stasis. He agrees and does so. In the epilogue, Syzygy maintains the stasis pods diligently until he observes a cryonic malfunction so severe than he is unable to do anything about it. Jacket Copy Things just keep going from bad to worse for poor Four. After discovering that his old enemy, Lady Deorwynn, is cooking up some sorceress-style mischief, Four amasses a group of rag-tag adventurers to try to stop her good and hard. What he doesn't count on is the witch flinging him and his butterfly girlfriend, Mariposa, through a magic portal and into a strange, new world. '' ''Now, aided by the clairvoyant child known as Talla Unica, the mystical wooden contraption called Syzygy, and a new friend named Birthday, Four and Mariposa must battle bounty hunters, flying egg-shaped machines (??), alien space lizards (?!), and even each other (!!) in their quest to return home... if there even is a way home! Trivia An early subtitle for the story was Even More Butterfly Tales ''before it was changed to the slightly more whimsical ''Yes, Even More Butterfly Tales. Mirabel has brown hair in this story. Brian observes that it's the same color hair as Mariposa; given the colors of her outfit, he suspects she is trying to look more like Mariposa to appeal to Four. Later, when it fades to a purple color, Mirabel insists this is the color she was trying to achieve. This is the third such hair color for her; it was blonde in The Quest for the World-Breaker and black in The Curse of the Fate Shifter. The calendar date of the story is 3068 A.D. This can be inferred from Birthday's birth date, which is given as one-three-one-eight-three-zero-four-nine (01/08/3049), and the fact that she is 19 years old during the story. Book four is 135,096 words in length, the second-shortest of the series. Category:Books Category:Real Life Things